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Floods peak in Brisbane lower than predicted levels

ELEANOR HALL: The floods were peaking in the Brisbane area just on midday eastern time today.

While floodwaters have spread through part of the CBD, the damage is nowhere near as catastrophic as it was two years ago.

There is also an air of relief in Ipswich and Logan as river levels there peaked lower than authorities had predicted.

But this disaster has claimed four lives in the state so far and thousands of households and businesses are without power.

In Brisbane Nance Haxton reports.

NANCE HAXTON: The skies are blue over Brisbane's CBD today and the wind gusts have eased. But concerns won't be alleviated until the high tide hits at lunchtime today.

There were seven swift-water rescues overnight, and the SES has received more than 3,000 calls for help. More than 160,000 Brisbane residents are still without power, and more than 250 schools are closed for the first day of the new school year.

Debris is the main concern, with fallen trees across the city causing major disruption to the city's trains and maritime services.

The Prime Minister Julia Gillard says relief payments are being made available throughout the state to help those affected.

JULIA GILLARD: What we've done already is, working with the State Government, we've commenced what's called the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements. They're active in 46 local government areas and to just give you a sense of how widespread that means it is, you've got 73 local government areas in Queensland we're talking about 46 of them.

NANCE HAXTON: The Brisbane River is expected to hit its peak at around 2.6 metres on the high tide.

Brisbane's Lord Mayor Graham Quirk says the city is still accessible, and they do not expect too much damage.

GRAHAM QUIRK: Seems to have worked fairly well, there's certainly a lot of activity in the CBD, people moving around as normal and you know, it looked to me functioning like any other normal working day.

About midday will be the key, that's the high tide but the bureau has downgraded the extent of the tidal impact, so they're predicting now that it will be pretty similar to yesterday, which saw some restaurants on the lower level of the Eagle Street Pier inundated, some car parks adjoining the river itself inundated, but generally speaking, that will be it.

We're not expecting to see any other impacts on the CBD.

NANCE HAXTON: Relief is the main theme in the cities of Ipswich and Logan.

Ipswich councillor Paul Tully lost his house and possessions in the devastating flood two years ago - his was one of around 600 that were washed away in his suburb of Goodna alone. But he was elated when he woke this morning.

PAUL TULLY: We reached the peak of the flood just after seven o'clock this morning. No homes had flooded. The whole community is ecstatic, the local flood recovery centre is already closed and people are going back to their homes.

There is no clean up required because there was no flood, you know, it's the only place in Queensland in the last week that they had a flood predicted and it didn't eventuate.

NANCE HAXTON: So I suppose just hopes that the same could happen for Brisbane today, as it awaits the flood peak?

PAUL TULLY: Well Goodna is on the Brisbane River and as you go downstream through the flood affected areas of Brisbane, I suspect and I believe that the peak of the flood will be lower than anticipated.

NANCE HAXTON: The Gold Coast has also escaped much of the flooding that was predicted for the area as water swept down from the hinterland.

Mayor Tom Tate says it will take some time to assess the damage left from the gale force winds and surging seas.

TOM TATE: The Premier is putting some money aside as well so and we'll work together to make sure that it's going to happen efficiently. We've got to get our city back on deck.

NANCE HAXTON: The Sunshine Coast to the north of Brisbane has set up a recovery committee to clean up the mess left by ex-Cyclone Oswald.

Alan Rogers from the Local Disaster Management Group says the main problem is the loss of essential services and sewage outflows onto several beaches.

ALAN ROGERS: And we will bring together representatives from council, public health, Energex, Telstra and other State Government agencies to look after the health and welfare of the people of the region and also to oversee the restoration of critical infrastructure such as power and telecommunications.

NANCE HAXTON: Hydrologist Chris Lay says while there is more flooding to come, it is minor compared to the floods of 2010 and 2011.

CHRIS LAY: The river will be significantly over its normal level, I mean it's sort of about, at that kind of level it's probably you know eight or nine metres above sort of its typical level during non-flood periods so it's going to be quite a bit higher than that and yeah quite a lot of low-lying areas will be inundated.

ELEANOR HALL: That was hydrologist Chris Lay ending that report from Nance Haxton in Brisbane.